International

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CEDAW/Pages/Recommendations.aspx

The Committee also makes recommendations on any issue affecting women to which it believes the States parties should devote more attention. For example, at the 1989 session, the Committee discussed the high incidence of violence against women, requesting information on this problem from all countries. In 1992, the Committee adopted general recommendation 19 on violence against women, asking States parties to include in their periodic reports to the Committee statistical data on the incidence of violence against women, information on the provision of services for victims, and legislative and other measures taken to protect women against violence in their everyday lives, including against harassment at the workplace, abuse in the family and sexual violence. As of January 2014, the Committee has adopted 30 general recommendations. 

http://www.humanrights.is/en/human-rights-education-project/complaints-procedures-of-the-international-human-rights-supervisory-

The Inter-American Commission is a quasi-judicial, quasi-political body established by the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights . It is based in Washington DC, USA.

http://www.humanrights.is/en/human-rights-education-project/complaints-procedures-of-the-international-human-rights-supervisory-bodies/how-to-bring-a-complaint/african-commission-on-human-and-peoples-rights-1

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is a quasi-judicial body,established by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Commission is based in Banjul, The Gambia.

http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=applicants

The European Court of Human Rights is an international court based in Strasbourg. It consists of a number of judges equal to the number of member States of the Council of Europe that have ratified the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – currently forty-five. 
The Court’s judges sit in their individual capacity and do not represent any State. In dealing with applications, the Court is assisted by a Registry consisting mainly of lawyers from all the member States (who are also known as legal secretaries). They are entirely independent of their country of origin and do not represent either applicants or States. 

http://www.humanrights.is/en/human-rights-education-project/complaints-procedures-of-the-international-human-rights-supervisory-

The European Court is a judicial body, established by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Court is based in Strasbourg, France and is a full time permanent body.

Composition

The Court is composed of forty-five judges, one judge for each state party to the ECHR. Article 20 ECHR establishes that ‘The Court shall consist of a number of judges equal to that of the High Contracting Parties.’

• ‘The judges shall be of high moral character and must either possess the qualifications required for appointment to high judicial office or be jurisconsults of recognised competence’ (Article 21(1) ECHR).
• The judges shall sit on the Court in their individual capacity (Article 21(2) ECHR).
• Ad hoc judges: Rule 29(1) Rules of Court. ‘1.(a) If the judge elected in respect of a Contracting Party concerned is unable to sit in the Chamber, withdraws, or is exempted, the President of the Chamber shall invite that Party to indicate whether it wishes to appoint to sit as judge either another elected judge or an ad hoc judge and, if so, to state at the same time the name of the person appointed.’

http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=basictexts/rules&c=#n1347875693676_pointer

The Rules of Court outline the policies and procedures of the European Court of Human Rights. The document explains the organization, proceedings, judgments, and overall working of the Court. 

http://www.coe.int/en/web/secretary-general/speeches/-/asset_publisher/g...

Today, Andorra became the 10th member state to ratify the Council of Europe's Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which means that the treaty will enter into force on 1 August for all countries that ratify it.

As the first legally binding set of standards on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in Europe, the convention requires states parties to prevent violence, protect victims, prosecute perpetrators, and co-ordinate measures through comprehensive policies.

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/eli/loi/2014/5/14/MAEJ1304999L/jo

Est autorisée la ratification de la convention du Conseil de l'Europe sur la prévention et la lutte contre la violence à l'égard des femmes et la violence domestique (ensemble une annexe), signée à Istanbul, le 11 mai 2011, et dont le texte est annexé à la présente loi (2).
La présente loi sera exécutée comme loi de l'Etat.

Schedule of the May 2014 Initiative on Violence Against Women Briefing. 

http://web.law.columbia.edu/human-rights-institute/publications

This Guide provides an overview of human rights law’s approach to addressing gender-based violence. 

Section I distills the core human rights principles related to gender-based violence, focusing on the “due diligence” standard: a comprehensive framework to address human rights violations in a systemic and proactive manner, whether committed by private or governmental actors.

Section II discusses the value added of human rights principles in the U.S. context, and identifies concrete ways to integrate core human rights principles into domestic policy.

Section III describes seminal international law cases related to gender-based violence.

Section IV concludes by offering several resources on human rights and gender-based violence, including U.S. government and NGO reports and recommendations related to eradicating gender-based violence, reviews of other countries’ approaches to these issues and a list of U.S.-based NGOs working on gender-based violence as a human rights issue.

The Appendix is a chart of the key provisions of international and regional human rights agreements that relate to gender-based violence.

http://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/mar-7-2014-usaid-re...

This report, among the most extensive recent assessments of women’s status, looks at women’s progress in four continents and more than 45 countries.  Women’s Lives and Challenges evaluates trends in women’s employment, domestic decision-making, exposure to violence, and access to education and health care. 

http://www.ijrcenter.org/regional/inter-american-system/#Resources_for_A...

International Justice Resource Center's publication, Advocacy before the Inter-American System: Manual for Attorneys and Advocates (2014) provides detailed information on the System, its components, complaints procedure, and decisions (also available in Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian Creole).

http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=caselaw/analysis&c=#n1347458601286_pointer

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/it-is-t...

On best estimates, the number of girls in Australia being forced into marriage here or overseas is in the hundreds every year. Girls as young as 12 or 13 are disappearing from schoolyards, packed off to the countries of their parents’ birth to wed men they have never met, while others are taken from their homes in southern Asia and the Middle East and brought into Australia to marry.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/09/four-thing...

The three-day Global Summit in June 2014 to End Sexual Violence in Conflict co-chaired by Angelina Jolie, offered visitors insight into the summit's message through cinema, art and photography in London. 

http://www.stoprapeinconflict.org/media

Members of The International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict today expressed their disappointment that the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence, hosted by the UK government, ended with few tangible results that will make an immediate impact on the ground.

Subject: This research memorandum presents key findings from desk research conducted in January and February 2014, on the barriers to instituting appropriate VAW laws against domestic violence (DV), and to effectively implementing them in three countries in Asia (China, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).

Background and Cross-Cutting Findings: China, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have all ratified CEDAW; however, both China and Pakistan have not passed the Optional Protocol to CEDAW. Research found four cross-cutting barriers impeding the institutionalization of appropriate VAW laws against DV in these three countries:

1)  The predominant public discourse on DV is fragmented. As a result, an overall sense of urgency and severity of the problem is not felt among key stakeholders in all 3 countries.

2)  Other national policies regarding housing, marriage, fertility, migration, etc. undermine both the international (CEDAW) legal framework, and the national policies set up for service provision and protection across all three countries.

3)  There is an overall lack of appropriate resource allocation among all 3 countries for comprehensively implementing appropriate VAW laws against DV. A large body of evidence suggests multiple root causes for VAW-DV, and States disagree on where and how to allocate resources to VAW-DV (prevention, intervention, prosecution, and protection).

4)  Incomparable and unreliable data is the 4^th major barrier to instituting appropriate VAW laws against DV both internationally through CEDAW, and nationally within all 3 countries. Transparency of data collection methodologies is also a noted concern. 

Violence against Women (VAW) is a pervasive, global human rights violation. This research memo discusses the current state of VAW in Australia, and the Australian Governments proposed National Action Plan (NAP) addressing VAW across Australia’s diverse community. Noting that women’s rights are not fully protected by the Commonwealth and revealing the current appalling statistics around domestic and sexual violence against Australian women, the memo then provides insight on Indigenous women and VAW, followed by a deeper look at NAP. Finally, after a brief look at the recent study tour of Australia by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Australia’s commitment to addressing VAW is discussed with reference to reporting for CEDAW and UPR. The memo then considers the Special Rapporteur’s study tour in light of the election of a new federal government. It then concludes that if the state shows genuine commitment to its people, and to its obligations under human rights treaties, the onus ultimately rests on it to work with civil society to make use of the human rights mechanisms and seek to honestly and with purpose examine their human rights status and develop and adopt sustainable positive change. 

https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rahila-gupta/victim-vs-survivor-femin...

Rahila Gupta argues that the term ‘victim’ needs to be reclaimed by feminist politics; whilst 'survivor' is important because it recognises the agency of women, it focuses on individual capacity, but the notion of 'victim' reminds us of the stranglehold of the system.

http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/302-timeline-of-policy-commitments-...

Decades of advocacy efforts led by the women’s movement and grassroots organizations across all regions have led to the recognition that violence against women and girls is a manifestation of systematic gender discrimination and inequality, a violation of human rights and detrimental to development. The historical developments below highlight the building momentum and increasing attention to violence against women on international and regional agendas.